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Medal record
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Kieran Martin WestMBE (born 18 September 1977[1]) is a retiredEnglishrower andOlympic champion who representedGreat Britain.
Born inKingston upon Thames,[2] West was educated atDulwich College, in south-eastLondon, before going toChrist's College, Cambridge in 1995, to study for aBA inEconomics andLand Economy, followed by aPGCE inMathematics three years later.[2] On graduating from his second degree he taughtMathematics atKing's College School, Wimbledon for two years, before returning to his studies in 2004.[3] Changing discipline, he first read for anMA inWar Studies atKing's College London, and then aPhD inFirst World WarStrategy andMilitary Intelligence atPembroke College, Cambridge.[1][3]
West was introduced to rowing by his father, Richard, and begancoxing atKingston Rowing Club aged 10. When he quickly outgrew this role he startedsculling, and entered his first race in November 1989, going unbeaten for over 2 years.[4] He won theNational Rowing Championships in asingle scull at his age category when 15,[2] then trialled for the British under-18 rowing team. Although initially successful, he suffered a severe lower back injury and was forced to retire from sport for three years to undergo intensive physiotherapy.[1]
For his first two years atCambridge West rehabilitated himself back into a boat, finally rowing again in spring 1997. After a term of rowing for hiscollege in theMay Bumps he rowed in theCambridge Goldie crew in the 1998Boat Race coxed by Olympian Suzie Ellis,[5] losing to Isis by two and a third lengths.[4][6][7]
West represented Great Britain for the first time in 1998, and made the CambridgeBlue Boat in 1999,[2] rowing in the six seat, a position he would take in all his Cambridge crews. Considered by many to have been one of the fastest crews the Club had produced, Cambridge went on to win comfortably in the second fastest time inBoat Race history.
Selected to represent Great Britain again that summer, and with the opportunity to go to his firstOlympic Games, West took a year out of his studies to concentrate on his rowing. While away he was elected President of theCambridge University Boat Club for the 2001Boat Race campaign.[2] Despite having lost both theBoat Race and the Isis-Goldie Race in 2000, Cambridge comfortably beat Oxford exactly six months after West'sSydney final. Goldie also beat Isis that year, giving Cambridge the clean sweep, the last time this would happen for six years. West was subsequently voted 'Cambridge Sports Personality of the Year, 2000/2001'.
Although he initially finished atCambridge in 2001, West returned in 2005 and rowed in the 2006Boat Race. Cambridge were favourites for the 2006 Race but rough conditions on the day led to Cambridge taking on a significant amount of water and coming close to sinking, leaving Oxford to pull away to victory.[3]
The following year, Cambridge were even stronger favourites and, with five returning members of the 2006 crew, were keen to put the record straight. After a tighter than expected early section of the race, Cambridge pulled away after twelve minutes to win.[3] As the rules of theBoat Race state that no athlete can participate in more than four races as an undergraduate and four races as a graduate (the "Rankov Rule"), this was West's last for Cambridge. Throughout the season, the crew had been accompanied by an ethnographer, Mark De Rond, who subsequently wrote a book on the season's experiences,The Last Amateurs: To Hell and Back with the Cambridge Boat Race Crew.
West joined the British rowing team after the2007 Boat Race, but retired from international rowing two months later to concentrate on his academic studies.
West's three wins from fourBoat Races makes him one of the most successful Cambridge rowingBlues, afterChris Baillieu who won four from four, while the eight years between his first and last Cambridge appearances is the longest span inBoat Race history. West was also the first member ofCambridge University to win a gold medal at theOlympic Games while still a student.
West's international rowing career began in 1998,[2] when he competed for Great Britain withMark Hunter in the Double Scull at the under-23 World Rowing Championships inIoannina,Greece. The following year he was selected to row in the Men's Eight at theWorld Rowing Championships.
In 1999, he was selected as part of an eight, coached byMartin McElroy andHarry Mahon. It was second at all three regattas in the 1999Rowing World Cup, broke the British record on two occasions and came close to breaking the world record. At theWorld Rowing Championships it briefly led the final, the first British eight ever to do so, before taking a silver medal behind the 1997 and 1998 World Champions, USA, the highest finish position of a British Eight at aWorld Rowing Championships.
West took a year out of his studies to concentrate on preparing for the2000 Sydney Olympics. The crew had two changes from the previous year and was even more successful in the early season, taking two gold medals and one silver from theRowing World Cup and becoming the first British Eight to win the event outright.
At theOlympic Games Britain were the joint favourites for the gold medal, alongside the USA, who had not raced internationally that season. A poor row in the first round, West's 23rd birthday, saw them lose to a strong Australian crew, but they won therepechage. In thefinal Britain led from start to finish to win the gold medal for the first time since the1912 Stockholm Olympic Games, with West being the youngest member of the crew, and the first member of Cambridge University to win at the Olympics while still a student.[2] Australia took the silver. The crew ofAndrew Lindsay,Ben Hunt-Davis,Simon Dennis,Louis Attrill,Luka Grubor, Kieran West,Fred Scarlett,Steve Trapmore andRowley Douglas were all subsequently awarded theMBE for "services to rowing" in the2001 New Year Honours.[2]
Though selected for the British Eight in 2001, West was unable to compete at theWorld Rowing Championships due to a rib injury followed by a shoulder injury sustained earlier that season. The following year West stroked the British Coxed Four to a gold medal at the 2002World Rowing Championships inSeville. The crew also contained two of the 2000 British Eight,Luka Grubor andSteve Trapmore, and two members of the 2001 CambridgeBlue Boat,Tom Stallard andChristian Cormack. The following year West andStallard were again in the Coxed Four and took a silver medal at theWorld Championships inMilan.[3]
West continued rowing internationally for the next three years, in the Men's Eight at the2004 Athens Olympics, stroking the Eight to fourth place at the2005 World Championships inGifu, and back in the six seat of the Eight at the2006 World Championships inEton. He retired from international rowing in March 2008.[3]
In the course of his rowing career West won every major international and domestic rowing event: theOlympic Games, theWorld Rowing Championships, theRowing World Cup, theOxford-Cambridge Boat Race, theHead of the River Race, theHead of the River Fours, and he came out of retirement in 2008 to win theVisitors' Challenge Cup atHenley Royal Regatta, in a composite crew representingImperial College London andKingston Rowing Club.[2]
West remains a member ofKingston Rowing Club. His last race was forPembroke College Boat Club first men's eight, in the 6 seat, who were one of only two crews in the Mays first division to receive blades in 2009, the other beingMagdalene College Boat Club.
West's older brother, Damian, is also an international oarsman,[4] who rowed forOxford University Boat Club in the 1996Boat Race and for Great Britain from 1993 to 1997.
City of Cambridge Rowing Club owns a men's eight named in West's honour:Kieran West, MBE. The boat was originally owned by Christ's College, Cambridge, where West was studying during his first period at Cambridge.
West was born with acleft lip and palate.[4] On 8 August 2009, West married Lourina Pretorius[8] a former student atNewnham College, Cambridge, from South Africa. The following month, he started work atMcKinsey & Co. in London, where he was employed for eight years. He now works in private healthcare. The couple lives in Buckinghamshire and has two daughters.
